ROTG: She's So Easy To Fall For But Boy She's So Hard To Hold
by Brown Eyes Parker
Summary: In the beginning, he had made the promises with the best intentions. He hadn't intended to fall in love with her. He'd fully planned on keeping his promises, on finding a girl his own age and falling for her. Rules of the Game world. Joshaya. Rated K .


**Rules of the Game: She's So Easy to Fall For But Boy She's So Hard to Hold**

 **A Josh & Maya Story**

 **By Brown Eyes Parker**

 **.**

" _ **She's so easy to fall for but boy, she's so hard to hold."**_

" **Oh Boy": BOY,** _ **Mutual Friends**_

" _ **It must have been good but I lost it somehow."**_

" **It Must Have Been Love" (cover): Mysha Didi**

He was stinging from her rejection even though he should have seen it coming from a mile away. He had _known_. . . her with her talk about things never changing, forcing him to make promises that he couldn't possibly keep.

In the beginning, he had made the promises with the best intentions. He hadn't intended to fall in love with her. He'd fully planned on keeping his promises, on finding a girl his own age and falling for her.

But somewhere between prom dates and movie nights and shared ice cream sundaes, Maya had gotten under his skin. He was in the middle before he had begun and now he couldn't even imagine loving anyone else except for her.

He wished he had handled it differently. Planned it better. Maybe wooed her quietly until they were both crazy and she realized that he, he was the only one for her.

He had started to, purchasing her concert tickets and _Pride & Prejudice _had been the start of it. But he had gotten ahead of himself. The stars and the smell of her perfume and the music. . . and the way she had figured it out before he could say it aloud had made him say it sooner than he had wanted to.

And then he'd tried to kiss her.

Josh's face flushed at the memory.

He usually had more sense than that.

He wanted to rewind and take the last few minutes back. He had most likely lost her for good. There was no way she was going to want anything to do with him now. Not after he'd broken her one explicit rule for their relationship.

He hadn't meant to.

But Josh was sure that Maya wouldn't care about _that_. She had liked him for so long, had tried to convince him that three years was _nothing_ in the course of true love. Part of him had always hoped she still harbored that crush on him in the deepest, most secret parts of her heart.

The rejection he felt was a million worse than the time he had been turned down by Sophie Miller. It was worse than the time he had found out there was no such thing as Santa Claus.

He realized with embarrassment that he was crying in the middle of the streets of New York. In a population of over 13 million people, he was thankful that he'd go unnoticed.

Until he got to Cory and Topanga's apartment of course. Everybody there would surely notice something was the matter. They'd all noticed he loved her even before he had realized it.

He couldn't bear to face their sympathy.

Or one of Cory's many life lessons.

But mostly, he didn't want his older brother to try and comfort him. This was one thing he couldn't make better. The only thing that would make _this_ better was if Maya loved him back.

And nobody could force her to do that.

Not his Maya.

But she wasn't his.

Josh stopped in front of Cory and Topanga's door and tried to compose himself before going inside. He wiped at his eyes roughly and sniffed a few times and then he used the spare key to get inside.

Cory and Topanga were sitting at the table playing Scrabble and he knew as soon as they looked at him that _they_ knew. Or at least they knew something was going on.

"Josh? Did you and Maya have a good time tonight?" Topanga asked concern etched on her face.

"It was fine," Josh mumbled. "I'm going to go to bed, I have to be up early for work tomorrow."

"You told her, didn't you?" Cory asked his voice laced with the sympathy that Josh so desperately wanted to avoid.

"Yeah. Yeah I did and she doesn't love me back," Josh answered. "You know, I think she was even a little mad at me for loving her. I think she thinks that I ruined everything."

"Oh Josh. . ."

"I wish I could turn off my feelings for her. I don't want to love her anymore," Josh said wearily. "Not if she doesn't love me back."

Cory got up and went over to him, he put his arms around him and held on tightly. "It'll be okay Josh. It'll be okay, eventually. I promise you it will be."

"Is this the part where you tell me that I'll fall in love again?" Josh asked weakly.

Cory shook his head. "No. No, the chances of you falling in love with anybody other than Maya are slim to none. You are a Matthews boy after all, when we fall, we pretty much fall for life."

"The good news is she's probably the one," Topanga said, joining them. "She'll come around eventually."

"How do you know?" Josh asked, feeling much younger than his 21 years.

"Because Maya reminds me a lot of somebody I used to know," Cory answered, looking at Topanga like he was asking her permission to say what he was going to say next.

Topanga nodded. "Me too."

Josh frowned. "Who?"

"She's your Topanga," Cory replied.

"And girls like us _always_ come around eventually," Topanga added. "I promise."

Josh shook his head. "No. Don't promise. If I've learned anything through _this_ , it's not to make promises you can't keep. Even if you intend to do it in the beginning."

"I know you meant to keep your promise to Maya," Cory said. "You can't help who you fall in love with, Josh. The heart wants what the heart wants."

"Maya doesn't want me."

Topanga and Cory exchanged looks again.

"Josh, I've seen the way she looks at you," Topanga said cautiously. "You can't fake _that_."

Josh sighed. "I feel like a huge baby right now. Not like a 21-year-old. I shouldn't be this upset."

"But you've never experienced true heartbreak," Cory pointed out. "I don't care how old you are, it's right and natural to feel that way. It means you felt something, it means you're human."

 **.**

Josh lay awake that night, watching the shadows on the ceiling and trying not to think about Maya. It wasn't the first night he'd spent like this though, he had spent many nights trying not to love her. Trying to chase her away so his dreams wouldn't be marked by her.

Like all the nights that had gone before, he couldn't stop thinking about her. But for the first time in a while, he _wanted_ not to think about her because it hurt too much.

He tossed and turned and didn't sleep at all.

 **.**

She was gone. Left without a trace, without a word about where she was going or what she was doing. She left without saying goodbye, he didn't think he had forfeited all rights to her when he had said those dreaded three words.

But he guessed he was wrong when he heard that she'd left New York. It looked like their friendship was completely over.

Life would never be the same again.

Katy and Shawn both assured him that things would be okay. Maya would come home with a new perspective and things might be even better than they were before.

She might even realize she loved him too.

Everybody kept saying that but he didn't believe it was true. He couldn't believe it was true. He'd been disappointed once, he didn't want to be disappointed again.

 **.**

It had been two weeks since he'd seen her. It felt like an eternity. He hadn't made any progress in moving on. He'd thrown himself into work during the day and dreamed of an alternative life at night.

The bell above the bookstore door rang, signaling the arrival of a browser or a new customer.

"I'll be with you in a minute," Josh said.

"Josh. . ."

He would know that voice anywhere, would know the sound of his name on her tongue in a post-apocalyptic world. He looked up and saw Maya standing in the doorway, looking at him.

He just watched her and waited for her to talk first.

 **The End**

 **.**

 **Author's Note:**

 **Patience comes to those who wait. You will see what Maya has to say in** **the conclusion of** _ **Rules of the Game**_ **. I promise it'll be worth your while. Next up is Maya's trip to NC and Riley's fretting about Josh/Maya's relationship (that is a one-shot too). The title and the quotes come from "Oh Boy" by BOY. It's really fits this story well. And of course the second quote is from "It Must Have Been Love". If you feel inclined, I would highly recommend listening to both songs.**

 **I'll be back soon!**

 **Until Next Time!**

 **Love,**

 **Holly, 1/30/2016_**


End file.
